War in the Gulf. (computer game) (Software Review) (Evaluation)
by Bob Eller

Kuwait, 1995. Saddam Hussein remains at the helm of Iraq's ship of state. Incidents between Israel and the Palestinians have raised the level of tension in the Middle East. Saddam believes the time is right to retake Kuwait.

This is the frighteningly believable scenario of one of the best battlefield simulators ever, War in the Gulf. Your assignment is to lead Team Kuwait, a crack team composed of American Desert Storm veterans hired by Kuwait's emir. You're commanding a tank assault to repel the invading Iraqi Republican Guard. Two Kuwait oil fields must be retaken, and the Iraqis must be pushed back across the border.

The emir has provided over $55 million to outfit Team Kuwait. Available weapons include the M-1 Abrams battle tank, the M-113 armored personnel carrier, the M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, and the M-901 TOW missile launcher. Each vehicle may be equipped with your choice of four different weapons: HEAT, SABOT, TOW, and SMOKE missiles.

You command 16 vehicles, which are divided between four platoons. A fourway split screen lets you see the battlefield from the perspective of each team. If the action gets too hot for one team, you can expand its view to full-screen so you can see more of what's going on. Thermal imaging makes night fighting possible, and you can call up an overhead map showing your forces and the Iraqi formations.

Controlling 16 tanks at once isn't easy, but who said war is simple? If you want to hone your battlefield strategy skills, War in the Gulf is worth a look. It is similar Empire tank games, such as Team Yankee, but it exhibits all the positive characteristics of a program that's been fine-tuned and perfected over time. My tanks to ReadySoft for importing this fun game.